THE TRUTH ABOUT MRT3

MALACAÑANG said Friday it had admonished the Department of Transportation and Communications not to be “stoic” amid the flak it has been receiving over the poor operations of the MRT-3.

“Our feedback mechanisms have also been receiving complaints, especially most recently about the MRT,” Deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte said.

“And our officials in the DOTC have been also hearing about these complaints from ordinary citizens as well as from those of us in government. Hopefully, they will not be stoic about these complaints.”

Commuters have sharply criticized the department over the long queues in the MRT-3 stations along EDSA.

On Wednesday, at least eight passengers were injured after the trains went on a “sudden break”, which transportation officials attributed to driver error.

The accident happened a few days after a significant portion of the train line was paralyzed over the weekend due to computer glitches.

Still, the MRT-3 management said the 17-kilometer elevated train line remained safe for the millions of commuters in the capital.

“The President is aware of these problems. The President is not blind and deaf when it comes to matters like this,” Valte said.

She said the DOTC had a timeline for improving the MRT-3, although she acknowledged it would take a while before the improvement could be felt.

“One limitation is we don’t buy trains off the rack,” Valte said.

“Hopefully, they’re trying to put some measures in place to make the daily commute a little more bearable.”